NORTHWICH has been gripped by an outbreak of panic petrol buying since the weekend with long queues reported at forecourts across the town.

Drivers rushed to fill their tanks as fears grew of possible fuel blockades outside refineries from today, Wednesday, despite attempts by retailers to reassure them supplies would not be affected.

In scenes reminiscent of the fuel crisis five years ago, drivers weren't taking any chances as they jammed roads outside supermarket petrol stations at Tesco, on Manchester Road, and Sainsbury's, on Venables Road yesterday, Tuesday.

Fuel stations in Northwich, Middlewich and Winsford were busier than usual on Monday, with queues at the pumps getting even longer yesterday, Tuesday.

Drivers have been stockpiling supplies of fuel amid fears that refineries are to be blockaded from 6am today, Wednesday, although protesters maintain they have no plans to stop supplies leaving.

Campaign group Fuel Lobby is threatening to be 'present' outside every refinery in the country for the next three days, which has led to concerns of a repeat of the fuel crisis in 2000.

A police spokesman said: "We have plans in place to deal with peaceful protests and traffic congestion and we understand that a number of garages have put people on forecourts to control queues."

Petrol retailers are doing their best to defuse the situation by maintaining they have contingency supply plans in place.

But Sainsbury's in Northwich ran out of fuel yesterday afternoon and a spokesman said the pumps were closed until another expected delivery arrived later in the day.

Dave Kingston, proprietor at Fred Cash Ltd in Middlewich, said: "People are panic buying which at this stage isn't justified. If everybody bought what they require then there would be no problem."

The cost of a litre of unleaded petrol has yet to hit the £1 mark in mid Cheshire but Dave said he believed the situation would get worse by the weekend.

He added that comparing prices between independent businesses like his and those on supermarket forecourts was unrealistic.

"Supermarkets have other areas in which they can make profit, they don't sell petrol alone," he said.

The Guardian visited Morrisons in Winsford on Monday lunchtime and was greeted by store staff at the car park entrance marshalling traffic to the pumps.

Matthew Powis, deputy manager, said: "It is noticeable that people are putting more petrol in their cars than usual, and it's true that we have been extremely busy since the weekend.

"However, I can assure drivers that our prices will remain unaffected and our supplies will not be disrupted."

It was a similar story at other filling stations, with unleaded petrol retailing at between 94p and 98p a litre and diesel peaking at 99p.